Watkins to Ask 7 States to Store Rocky Flats’ Radioactive Waste

Energy Secretary James D. Watkins said Thursday he’ll ask seven states to store radioactive waste from a Colorado nuclear weapons plant threatened with shutdown unless waste sites are found by March.

Watkins said he had not yet selected the states, but they apparently would include Colorado and Idaho and possibly New Mexico, Nevada and Washington, which are key links in the Energy Department’s troubled nuclear weapons complex.

The two other nearest states with nuclear weapons sites are Texas and California.

In testimony before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Watkins said he must ask the states to accept the waste--totaling as much as 4,900 cubic yards over a two-year period starting next March 1--because a planned permanent waste dump in New Mexico cannot be opened until next July at the earliest.

The New Mexico repository was supposed to have opened a year ago but has been repeatedly delayed by a series of environmental, technical and regulatory problems.

Watkins said he expected the problem of finding a temporary storage site for the Rocky Flats weapons plant waste to become “a very contentious issue” as he begins outlining his seven-state plan with governors and members of Congress next week.

“People are going to say, ‘Not in my state,’ ” Watkins said, adding that “perhaps there are seven states out there willing” to help ease the waste crunch.